 India march to an easy 7 wickets wins in the Group C opener against Afghanistan here at Beausejour Stadium, Gros Islet, St Lucia but not before the Afghanis great spirit to the game that showed to the world that they suddenly belongs to this top level cricket. Chasing 116 runs for victory, India achieved the target in 14.5 overs with the loss of three wickets. M.Vijay (48 runs of 46 balls), Yuvraj Singh (23* runs of 22 balls) and M.S.Dhoni (15* runs of 6 balls) were useful contributor with the bat. Minnows Afghanistan showed courage to stand up to cricketing giants India. You can imagine how hard it for them to come from country where there is no stadium. They have learnt the cricket at refugee camps. They don’t even have proper dressing rooms in there country. However there fight to the cricketing giants India was awesome, they have not let them down in the field. Defending the score of 115 they have bowled and fielded well. Putting into bat by Indian Captain M.S.Dhoni, they didn’t get good start as per there liking and lost three crucial wickets inside first six overs. However superb effort from Noor Ali (50 runs of 48 balls) and Asghar Stanikzai (30 off 33 balls) pulled them out of trouble. Both manage to put 68 runs for the fourth wicket. But both batsmen got out at crucial juncture of the match and that peg them back. In the end they just mange 115/8 in their 20 overs. From India Ashish Nehra and Praveen Kumar was pickoff the bowler. Both have taken three and two wickets each. India got of to flying start in the very first over with M.Vijay carried his form from IPL to world t20 by smashing Dawlat Ahmadzai for one huge six and one four over long-off boundary. Riht-arm medium fast Dawalat Ahmadzai got the wicket of Gautam Gambhir with Mohammad Nabi taking a fine catch at cover point. Leg spinner Samiullah Shenwari then took the wicket of Suresh Raina (18 runs of 13 balls) trapped lbw. For Afghanistan, Medium pacer Hamid Hassin was the pick of the bowlers, dismissing Vijay and giving away just eight runs in three overs. A.Nehra was declared Man of the Match for his superb bowling spell of 3/19 in his four overs. Match Summary (India Won by 7 Wickets) Afghanistan – 115/8 in 20 Overs Noor Ali- 50 A.Stanikzai– 30 A.Nehra- 4-0-19-3 P.Kumar– 3-0-14-2 India– 116/3 in 14.5 Overs M.Vijay- 48 Y.Singh–23* D.Ahmedzai- 2-0-21-1 S.Shenwari– 2-0-11-1 Tags: India v Afghanistan world twenty20, ICC World twenty20 India v Afghanistan, India beat Afghanistan by 7 wickets, India v Afghanistan highlights, twenty20 world cup, St Lucia, India v Afghanistan Beausejour Stadium St Lucia, India v Afghanistan match results, ICC world twenty20 points table, cricket 2010, Cricket highlighhts, Murali Vijay knock against Afghanistan, Dhoni smashed two consecutive Sixes, Afghanistan v India twenty20 highlights, ICC world twenty20 2010 |
